Keynotes (2019)
Luc Bélanger
Le 17 juillet 2017, Me Luc Bélanger a été nommé président de la Commission de révision agricole du Canada pour un mandat d’une durée de 5 ans. À compter de l’automne 2019, il sera président du Conseil des présidents et des présidentes des tribunaux fédéraux. Me Bélanger possède une vaste expérience en tant qu'avocat au ministère de la Justice du Canada. De 2005 à 2011, il a notamment dirigé l'équipe de travail au sein des services juridiques d'Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada (AAC) dans les recours collectifs impliquant les manufacturiers de tabac. Durant cette période, il a développé un fort intérêt pour l’utilisation des nouvelles technologies dans la pratique du droit. C'est ainsi que de 2009 à 2015, Me Bélanger a été membre du groupe de travail no. 7 (WG7) de Sedona Canada. Il a contribué activement à la publication de la deuxième édition en 2015 des Principes de Sedona Canada sur l'administration de la preuve électronique. Depuis le printemps dernier, il est à nouveau membre du WG7 et son intérêt porte sur l’intelligence artificielle afin de favoriser l’accès à la justice. À l’aide de son leadership et de son expérience, Me Bélanger a contribué de 2012 à 2014 la création du Bureau national de la preuve électronique et de soutien aux litiges à la Direction du contentieux du ministère de la Justice du Canada. Lors de cette période, il a en outre créé et coprésidé le groupe de pratique sur l'administration de la preuve électronique au sein du ministère de la Justice du Canada. De 2014 à 2017 Me Bélanger a travaillé aux services juridiques d'Emploi et développement social Canada. Plus particulièrement, il a plaidé devant le Tribunal de la sécurité sociale du Canada et participer à la rédaction législative pour la bonification du régime de pensions du Canada à compter de 2019. Me Bélanger détient une licence en droit civil (LL.L.) de l'Université d'Ottawa et est membre du Barreau du Québec et du Barreau canadien.
Keith Currie
Keith Currie, a Collingwood-area hay and sweet corn farmer, was acclaimed as President of the Ontario Federation of Agriculture (OFA) at the 2018 Annual General Meeting, returning for his third one-year leadership term for OFA’s 38,000 farm members. Currie is the organization’s 31st President. His inaugural election as OFA President occurred at the 2016 Annual General Meeting. Prior to his role as President, Currie was the organization’s Vice President from 2013-2016. His 25+ years of experience with the OFA began with an appointment to the Simcoe County Federation of Agriculture, where he held numerous positions including President from 2004-2006.
Suresh Doss
Suresh Doss is a food, drink, travel writer based out of Toronto, Canada. His essays on food and drink can be found through a variety of radio, print and online channels for the last 15 years. Suresh is the food guide for CBC Toronto with a weekly show on Metro Morning where he highlights various places to eat throughout the GTA and beyond. Suresh has also regularly contributed to Globe and Mail and Toronto life. Suresh regularly runs food tours throughout the GTAs, aimed at highlighting multi cultural suburban pockets.
Carmen Francis
Carmen Francis is a senior associate in McCarthy Tétrault’s International Trade & Investment Law Group in Toronto. Her practice is focused on providing business-friendly, strategic and skilled advice across a wide range of trade, regulatory and compliance matters. Carmen’s regulatory practice is tailored to supporting clients at each stage of the regulatory continuum: from the earliest stages of product formulation and development, to packaging and labelling requirements, ensuring compliance with mandatory standards, obtaining requisite permits and licences, assisting with import and export compliance, and through to responding to regulatory enforcement actions. Her advice is responsive to clients’ needs, and prioritizes supporting clients in achieving their business objectives while navigating complex regulatory regimes. In particular, Carmen has extensive experience in the regulation of food and consumer retail products, and products subject to specialized regulatory regimes such as alcoholic beverages, cannabis, controlled goods and defence articles, cosmetics, natural health products, and medical devices. Carmen provides proactive, pragmatic and considered guidance in an increasingly intricate regulatory environment.
Martha Harrison
Martha Harrison is a partner in McCarthy Tétrault’s International Trade and Investment Law, and Retail and Consumer Markets Groups in Toronto. A strategic, experienced and approachable business advisor, Martha practices international trade, regulatory and public procurement law, as well as international arbitration. An experienced member of the trade bar, clients look to Martha for her industry expertise and deep comprehension of international trade law’s intricate business implications. Martha advises clients across a broad spectrum of industries, with an emphasis on food, beverage & agri-business, as well as other retail & consumer markets. In addition, Martha's regulatory practice is focused on providing strategic and pragmatic advice regarding product regulation in Canada, including standards, packaging and labelling, importing and exporting issues, and transportation matters.
Camille Labchuk
Camille Labchuk is an animal rights lawyer and executive director of Animal Justice—Canada’s only animal law advocacy organization. Animal Justice works to promote tough new animal protection legislation, enforce laws already on the books, and fights legal cases in courtrooms. Camille’s work includes intervening in court cases to protect and enhance animals’ legal interests; filing false advertising complaints against companies making misleading humane claims; documenting Canada’s commercial seal slaughter; exposing hidden suffering on farms and zoos through undercover investigations. Camille is a frequent lecturer on animal law, and a regular contributor to publications like the Globe and Mail, iPolitics, and Huffington Post, and her work has been featured in countless media stories.
Lyzette Lamondin
Lyzette Lamondin is the Executive Director of Food Safety and Consumer Protection with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. She has held various positions within the Agency, including Executive Director of the Food Import, Export and Consumer Protection Division and Director of Agri-food Programs, and was Chair of the Codex Committee on Food Labelling in 2015 and 2017. Lyzette led the initial consultations and drafting of the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations from 2012 to 2015. Prior to joining the CFIA she worked in intergovernmental and regulatory affairs in the Departments of Fisheries Oceans, and in community-based programs at Health Canada.
Darcy Lindberg
Darcy Lindberg is an Assistant Professor with the University of Alberta's Faculty of Law, where he teaches courses on Indigenous law, Indigenous peoples and the law, and Indigenous relationships to the environment. He is mixed-rooted Plains Cree, with his relations coming from Samson Cree Nation in Alberta and the Battleford-area in Saskatchewan. His research focuses on the constitutional and legal theory of Plains Cree peoples in relation to lands, waters, and animals. Darcy was called to the BC and Yukon Bars in 2012, where he practiced law primarily in the Yukon Territory.
Pat Mooney
Pat Mooney is the co-founder and former executive director of the ETC Group, and is an expert on agricultural diversity, biotechnology, and global governance with decades of experience in international civil society and several awards to his name. Since 1977, ETC group has focused on the role of new technologies on the lives and livelihoods of marginalized peoples around the world. Pat Mooney has almost half a century of experience working in international civil society, first addressing aid and development issues and then focusing on food, agriculture and commodity trade. He received The Right Livelihood Award (the "Alternative Nobel Prize") in the Swedish Parliament in 1985 and the Pearson Peace Prize from Canada's Governor General in 1998. He has also received the American "Giraffe Award" given to people "who stick their necks out." The author or co-author of several books on the politics of biotechnology and biodiversity, Pat Mooney is widely regarded as an authority on issues of agricultural diversity, global governance, and corporate concentration. Although much of ETC's work continues to emphasize plant genetics and agriculture, the work expanded in the early 1980s to include biotechnology. In the late 1990s, the work expanded further to encompass a succession of emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, synthetic biology, geoengineering, and new developments ranging from genomics and neurosciences to robotics and 3-D printing. Pat Mooney and ETC group are known for having discovered and named The Terminator seeds – Genetically-modified seeds designed to die at harvest.
Stuart Oke
Stuart Oke is an Organic Farmer who alongside his wife and their business partner run Rooted Oak farm. Located outside St-Andre-Avellin, QC they produce Certified Organic vegetables and flowers which feed their CSA members and farmers market clients in Ottawa and the surrounding areas. Stuart is an active board and executive committee member for Canadian Organic Growers (COG) a national organization which supports organic growers through training and education and advocates on behalf of the organic sector. He is the current Youth President for the National Farmers Union, a voluntary membership organization representing thousands of farmers across Canada. When not growing or selling vegetables and flowers he spends his time advocating for policies and services which will support the next generation of farmers. He is a strong supporter of Organics, Agroecology, and the principles of Food Sovereignty and uses his farm and position with the National Farmers Union and COG to promote them to eaters, farmers, and politicians alike.
Melana Roberts
As Chair of the Board of Food Secure Canada, a member of the Toronto Food Policy Council (TFPC), and Chair of the Toronto Youth Food Policy Council, Melana has worked on variety of food policy initiatives with a diversity of stakeholders, including farmers, Indigenous communities and regional food networks. Grounded in food justice principles, her work strives to create a more just, equitable and sustainable food system through engagement on 2 simultaneous fronts: on the ground advocacy and community building and food policy development. Melana has led TFPCs Food Champion's initiative, mobilizing 400+ stakeholders to increase food assets in Toronto. Although grounded in Ontario, she has worked closely with local, regional and national stakeholders as the point person on SNPs and food policy issues for the Chair of the Board of Health; and has been involved in the development of Ontario and Canada's first food strategies. Melana is also deeply committed to supporting food justice principles, and has worked with a number of non-profits to better operationalize these principles in their work.
Tom Rosser
Mr. Tom Rosser joined Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) as the Assistant Deputy Minister of Strategic Policy in January 2017. He is responsible for leading on major policy issues on behalf of the Department including Cabinet and intergovernmental affairs, implementing the Food Policy for Canada, as well as economic analysis. Before joining AAFC, he was the Senior Assistant Deputy Minister of Strategic Policy at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, responsible for policy development, Cabinet and Parliamentary Affairs, communications, economic analysis and trade. Prior to that, he was the Assistant Deputy Minister, Canadian Forest Service (CFS), Natural Resources Canada (NRCan). Earlier in his career, Tom held a number of positions in both the public and private sectors related to economic and public policy analysis in natural resource sectors. This included assignments at NRCan, Industry Canada and the Forest Products Association of Canada. A British Chevening Scholar, Tom holds a Master of Science in Environmental and Resource Economics from the University of London as well as Masters and Bachelor’s degrees in Public Administration from Carleton University in Ottawa.
Kathleen Sullivan
Kathleen Sullivan is one of Canada’s most dynamic agri-food industry leaders. She is a public affairs and regulatory expert, industry advocate, proven association executive and lawyer with a successful 20+ year career. In August 2018, Kathleen was appointed as CEO of the newly-formed Food and Beverage Canada – Aliments et boissons Canada – an organization representing Canadian food and beverage processor businesses located in urban and rural regions across the country. Kathleen has been involved in the development of key trade policies and the negotiation of significant multilateral and bilateral trade agreements such as the Doha Development and Bali Rounds of the World Trade Organization, the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. Kathleen’s leadership has been demonstrated through a number of senior positions including Executive Director of the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance, President of the Canadian Agri-food Policy Institute and General Manager of the Animal Nutrition Association of Canada. Kathleen has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Carleton University and a law degree from the University of Western Ontario.
Ryan White
Ryan is a partner at Cavalluzzo LLP. His practice areas include labour relations and construction law. Ryan is the co-leader of the firm's construction labour law practice group. He is a graduate of Osgoode Hall Law School. During law school he received several academic awards, including class prizes in Torts and Bankruptcy and Insolvency Studies, and the Nick McCombie Prize for the best paper on the subject of workers’ rights. While at Osgoode Hall, Ryan spent time in the Workers’ Rights Division at Parkdale Community Legal Services and worked as a research assistant in the areas of access to justice and Aboriginal sovereignty. In addition, Ryan was a member of the York University Senate and Osgoode Hall’s Student Caucus. Throughout his studies Ryan volunteered with the Workers’ Action Centre. Before law school, Ryan was an executive member of the University of Guelph’s student union, the Central Student Association (CSA), where he was responsible for leading social justice campaigns and supervising the CSA’s human rights office.